By Shermaine Choe And Pan Eu Joe
SICC chairman Charles Santiago (seated, second from left) and other representatives of the Indian community at a press conference today.PETALING JAYA: Two NGOs are seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to discuss their proposed initiatives to uplift the Indian community under the 13th Malaysian Plan (13MP).Former Klang MP Charles Santiago said that Sustainable Initiative for Community Change (SICC) and Yayasan Iltizam Malaysia had submitted their proposals to the economy ministry on June 23, but had yet to receive a response.鈥淲e are waiting for a reply to set a meeting date,鈥 the SICC chairman said at a press conference.While there was no fixed timeframe for the government to respond, the DAP man expressed hope that the prime minister would address the proposal soon, whether through a public announcement or in Parliament when the 13MP is tabled this month.The NGOs proposed 40 initiatives and 11 action plans across five pillars under the 13MP to address the systemic barriers faced by the Indian community.The five pillars are education reforms, women and youth development, the advancement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), institutional reforms, and governance.The proposals were formulated after months of consultation with over 200 people including women, non-profit leaders, academics and the general Indian community.Among others, the groups called for preschool education to be made mandatory for all children, as part of resolving the 鈥渆xtremely high鈥 dropout rates among Indian students, estimated at between 30% and 50%.They also mooted the setting up of 40 community labs over the next five years with the goal of supporting Indian women and youth in terms of education, training, and entrepreneurship.To develop Indian-owned SMEs, they suggested that the government establish a community-funded Malaysian Indian development fund for initiatives to upskill the community and boost its economic participation.Malaysians could be encouraged to contribute RM10 to RM30 a month to the development fund to finance its initiatives, with the goal of eventually raising RM50 million, they said.In the same vein, the NGOs said it was important to ensure good governance to make certain that programmes and initiatives for the Indian community are tracked and funds spent for their intended purposes.They also proposed turning the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit, or Mitra, into a statutory body with parliamentary oversight in order to rebuild public confidence in the unit.The 13MP, which lays out the next five-year development plan for Malaysia, is being overhauled by Putrajaya following Rafizi Ramli鈥檚 resignation as economy minister.It is expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat during the upcoming parliamentary meeting, which will convene from July 21 to Aug 28.